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Atomic Bomb Survivor: Remember What Happened in Nagasaki and Hiroshima

Last weekend, I attended “Looking Back:
Remembering the Victims of Nuclear Weapons – Looking Forward: Towards a Nuclear Free Future,” an event Peace Action West cosponsored to commemorate the victims of nuclear weapons on the 63rd anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

Retired Methodist minister Rev. Nobuaki Hanaoka, who survived the US atomic bombing of Nagasaki as a baby, gave a moving speech to the large crowd that attended the event. You can watch a short video of part of his speech as he talks about the indiscriminate suffering caused by the bombing and the tragedy that it caused within his own family.

He went on to talk about the ensuing arms race with Russia and Congress’ recent refusal to fund a new generation of nuclear weapons, the Reliable Replacement Warhead. It was interesting hearing him bring up that specific program as we stood just a few feet away from the Livermore Lab, which actually won the contest to design the RRW. Rev. Hanaoka also reminded us that our work is not yet done, saying there are an estimated 26,000 nuclear warheads worldwide (with the US accounting for about 10,000 alone) and that we all need to continue to push for global nuclear disarmament.